Email is a marketing channel that has evolved over the years, smartly adopting new technology and adapting to demands of the changing times. No wonder it has not just survived but is ruling over the marketing world SINCE DECADES - Email is KING!
According to a Radicati Report, by end of 2020, the number of email users worldwide will rise to 3.0 billion.
By end of 2020, business and
consumer emails sent &
received per day will total
over 257.7 billion!
Adestra in a survey found that 68% teens and 73% Millennials consider email as the preferred communication medium.
the undefeated, unstoppable KING of the marketing world?
Good qualities make a GOOD KING.
Here are the 8 salient traits of Email that have helped it reign supreme for decades.
When Econsultancy and Adestra asked respondents during a survey to rate channels or disciplines as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ for ROI, this is what they found:
The graph depicts a change for each channel from 2008-2017
What happens after you send an Email Campaign?
The only way to find out if it has worked in your favor or not is by tracking the results.
Most email marketing tools can track the performance of your campaign through
open rates, click-through rates, delivery rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe
rates. The analysis of these metrics plays a pivotal role in understanding what’s work-
ing for your business and what’s not.
Email is the only channel that shares the results within 72 hours of hitting send and
you can determine its effectiveness based on the metrics shared above.
Real-time email marketing is all about using real-time data to create targeted,
timely emails that connect with the subscribers and fulfill their expectations of
personalization and instant gratification.
Sending emails based on real-time and triggers (like recent website activity, a recent
purchase, cart abandonment, etc.), you can reach the right audience, at the right time,
in the right place, and with the right offer.
Advanced list segmentation provides email marketers a better chance at doing so.
You can tailor your messages to specific groups segmented on the basis of
demographics, location, time zone, purchase history, etc.
Here’s what segmented campaign results look like against non-segmented ones:
A customized experience is what customers seek today.
As per @salesforce study, 63% Millennials, 58% Gen Xers & 46% Baby Boomers will willingly share personal information if companies send personalized offers.
Going beyond the first name, email personalization is scaling new heights with the
use of dynamic content, customized for each recipient. This level of personalization
enhances the effectiveness of your campaigns manifold.
What makes real-time data so amazing is that you can create a 360-degree approach
on your customer by merging all insights drawn from patterns, behavior, and history.
This helps marketers deliver a delightful customer experience each time across each
channel - brick-and-mortar store, website, email, and social.
From the moment a visitor visits your website, they become a part of your customer
lifecycle. Awareness, Consideration, Decision – whichever stage your prospect may
be in the buyer’s journey, you can effectively leverage email to prod them towards
buying. A lead nurturing email strategy can help you convert leads into customers.
Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than those who buy immediately.
Even after a customer has bought from you, you can leverage email to make
them evangelists for your brand.
As you use email marketing at every stage of the buyer’s journey, it’s a hell lot of work! Automation can be the savior. According to the Salesforce State of Marketing Report 2017, 67% of marketing leaders currently use a marketing automation platform while 21% of them plan to use it in the next two years.
Email Marketing Automation uses tools and mechanisms to automate communication with leads while maintaining a high degree of personalization. You can thus rest assured that your subscribers receive relevant and timely emails.
Triggers and email workflows can be used to automatically send messages to subscribers after they take a specific action. Something like this:
While plain text emails still go well for certain businesses, high-definition images,
animation, and interactivity are making a mark in the email marketing industry by
engaging subscribers like never before.
Animations in the form of GIFs and Cinemagraphs are quite popular amongst both
marketers and subscribers but with the possibility of CSS in email, interactive
elements are now competing to grab attention.
With most email clients now providing support for interactive elements like
Gamification, Slider, Menu, Accordion, Collapsible Carousel, Flip effect, etc.
things seem to be falling in place for email marketers.
Email’s arsenal has one tool that helps to win every war - A/B Testing. You can test content variations, segmentation, personalization etc. with this amazing tool and only send out the best for each campaign. Metrics like open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate for the versions can help to figure out the best option for you.
Moreover, almost every email campaign software has built-in
Some elements that you can A/B test:
Marketing today is consumer focused. It’s about what the consumer wants and when.
It’s about respecting their choice and privacy. Going by the best practices, email
marketers generate mailing lists organically i.e. by capturing email addresses
with the prospects’ permission. This method of list building has its set of advantages:
It’s proof that you regard your customer’s privacy.
Emails are relevant and sent only to interested recipients.
… And emailing to and focusing on prospects who are genuinely interested in your products/services is bound to bestow good results for your marketing efforts.
BUT make sure your emails are GDPR compliant.